Farmland ownership by American adversaries would be further regulated under a bill U.S. Sens. Mike Braun and Todd Young introduced Tuesday.
The bill, officially titled the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, tightens federal oversight on agricultural land acquisition by China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, along with transactions the countries are required to report to the Farm Service Agency.
Those already include transactions of farmland from all foreign countries, gathered and given in yearly reports to congress.
In a news release introducing the bill, Young claimed recent efforts by China and “other adversaries” to buy farmland in the U.S. presented a national security threat. Braun claimed that Chinese ownership of American farmland increased 20-fold over the past decade.
However, farmland ownership by U.S. adversaries still remains low overall — only about 1% across the country according to Cornell University. Other experts have questioned whether farmland ownership actually represents security threats.
As an amendment to the 1950 Defense Production Act, the bill would put the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The secretary could report adversaries’ transactions of farmland, biotech and other areas under the agricultural industry.
Indiana already has a similar law prohibiting citizens of adversarial nations from owning Hoosier agricultural land, with some exceptions. That law, which took effect in July, faced criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, who said it wrongly impacted immigrants from adversarial countries.
The national bill is bipartisan, cosponsored by nine Republicans including Young and Braun, three Democrats and Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
The Indiana Farm Bureau sponsored the national bill. INFB President Randy Kron said in a statement to the Indiana Daily Student that it will benefit Indiana farmers.
“Hoosier farmers and INFB members are concerned about the rapid rise of foreign investment involving agricultural land and what that means for our national security,” he said. “Preserving Hoosier farmland and banning the sale of land to foreign adversarial countries was a top priority for INFB during the 2024 legislative session with the passing of House Bill 1183. We support the oversight and reporting of attempted purchases by foreign adversaries on the national level to help preserve U.S. farmland and protect our food security.”
— Andrew Miller covers politics and elections for the Indiana Daily Student. Contact him at ami3@iu.edu, or direct message via X.
